(a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cooling fin assembly, and more particularly, to a cooling fin assembly suitable for heat sinks used in various chipsets or processors of computers. The cooling fins are fastened and joined with one another using structures thereof, thereby economizing production cost thereof.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
It is widely acknowledged that heat is produced during operations of chipsets or processors of computers. The faster the operation speed is, the larger the watt of the driving power gets, and the higher the temperature produced becomes. However, excessive high temperatures of the chipsets or processors are likely to affect operations thereof, and computer crashes are thus frequently resulted. Therefore, heat sinks are provided at the chipsets or processors for heat dissipation.
In a structure of a common heat sink, a top plane of a base made of aluminum and mounted on a chipset or processor is extended upward so as to form a plurality of vertical, parallel and spaced cooling fins. Heat produced by the chipset or processor is absorbed by the base and transmitted to the plurality of cooling fins. Heat exchange is carried out using spaces between individual cooling fins, and thus accomplishing heat dissipation purposes. In addition, certain heat sinks are provided with fans above. Wind blowing from the fans is utilized to accelerate speed of air traveling between individual cooling fins, so as to spontaneously speed up heat dissipation for further lowering temperature of the chipset or processor. It is to be noted that heat sinks having additional fans are within applicable range of the invention.
An extensively applied manufacturing method of the aforesaid cooling fin is aluminum extrusion. After having been formed by aluminum extrusion, the cooling fin is sliced and processed to an appropriate dimension for coordinating with chipsets or processors. However, such type of cooling fin formed by aluminum extrusion has several drawbacks. Production cost thereof is rather high due to slow manufacturing speed thereof. Also, to avoid breakage of molds caused by pressure during extrusion and subsequent quantity restrictions on cooling fins, spaces between individual cooling fins shall not be too small either. However, the fewer the quantity of cooling fins is, the smaller the available area for heat dissipation gets, and the slower the heat dissipation speed becomes. In addition, molds are needed for heat sinks formed by aluminum extrusion. Once the molds are completed, difficulties may arise if any changes are required, and hence restricting dimensions of the heat sinks formed by aluminum extrusion.
The aforesaid drawbacks of conventional heat sinks formed by aluminum extrusion have become more and more incompetent in solving heat dissipation problems of advanced chipsets and processors having faster and faster operation speeds today. Therefore, to solve the aforesaid drawbacks of the prior art, industrialists have developed a cooling fin assembly having a plurality of cooling fins that are manufactured independently and then assembled.
Referring to FIG. 1, in a prior art, a plurality of cooling fins are independently manufactured, and then assembled. Each main body of the cooling fins 1 is stamped into a thin slice in shape. Upper and lower edges of the main body 1 are transversely extended to form upper and lower joining pieces 2. The upper and lower joining pieces 2 are further stamped to form a plurality of corresponding positioning holes 3 and positioning bumps 4.
During assembly, two cooling fin main bodies 1 are placed next to each other. The upper and lower joining pieces 2 of one main body 1 is overlapped with another main body 1, such that the positioning bumps 4 thereof are fastened into the positioning holes 3 at the upper and lower joining pieces 2 of another main body 1, thereby completing the assembly process. Similarly, other cooling fin main bodies 1 are joined in sequence, and thus completing the assembly of a plurality of cooling fins.
The aforesaid technique, in which a plurality of cooling fins is manufactured independently, and assembled, is indeed capable of solving heat dissipation problems of heat sinks formed by aluminum extrusion. However, advancement thereof can yet be made. For instance, the upper joining piece 2 of the cooling fin main body 1 directly blocks an upper portion of the entire heat sink. After heat is absorbed by the heat sink, circulation paths of heat is hindered by the upper joining piece 2 when heat is ascended from thermal exchange of the cooling fin and air. As a result, speed of heat dissipation is relatively slowed down.
It is apparent that this prior art can be further advanced.
The object of the invention is to provide a cooling fin assembly comprising a plurality of cooling fins that form a plurality of vertical and parallel cooling fins above a base of a heat sink. Wherein, two sides at a bottom portion of a main body of each cooling fin are provided with a clasp piece, respectively; a bottom edge of the main body is transversely extended and formed with a connecting piece; and an edge of the connecting piece is further formed with a positioning piece by folding upward. Using the aforesaid structure, when a second cooling fin is butted against a side edge of the positioning piece of a first cooling fin, the clasp piece of the second cooling fin is clasped at the positioning piece of the first cooling fin, thereby fastening and joining the cooling fins to one another.
In the aforesaid cooling fin assembly according to the invention, positioning and fastening of two cooling fins are completed by a clasp piece of one cooling fin clasping a positioning piece of another cooling fin, and therefore two adjacent cooling fins are reserved with a certain gap in between while upper portions thereof in communication with open air of an exterior. For this reason, when heat below the plurality of cooling fins is absorbed and transmitted upward for thermal exchange with air, heat is rapidly ascended without hindrance, thereby increasing efficiencies of heat dissipation.
In addition, using structure of each cooling fin capable of joining and fastening with one another, molds formed by extrusion for heat sinks are no longer required. Manufacturing speed thereof is accelerated, and quantities of cooling fins may also be adjusted based on requirements. Therefore, dimensions of heat sinks are not restricted for further economizing production cost thereof.
Furthermore, the connecting piece and the positioning piece formed by transversely extending the bottom edge of each cooling fin enable the cooling fin to be joined with another cooling fin. The narrower the width of the connecting piece is, the smaller the space between two adjacent connecting pieces gets, and the larger the area for heat dissipation becomes. Consequently, the speed and efficiencies of heat dissipation are also relatively increased.